Managing underground emergency incidents such as fires, inundations, roof falls or life-threatening poisonous gases, can be complex, confusing and frustrating. To have a successful emergency response, it is important to establish an organizational structure that will address the many issues that arise during these events and ensure a coordinated and effective rescue effort. Building on the foundation provided by National Incident Management System (NIMS), as well as recommendations of experienced underground mine managers and mine rescue team members, and experiences gained during underground mine rescue team and underground first responder training at the Colorado School of Mines’ (CSM) Edgar Mine, the staff of CSM’s EMCIS adapted the overarching principles, organizational structure, command relationships, terminology and best practices found in NIMS to the underground environment.

This document is intended to provide command and control center personnel, and surface support organizations with guidance that will allow mine rescue teams and first responders operating in an underground environment to perform their assigned tasks in a safe, expeditious, and competent manner.

Design: This document includes a PowerPoint presentation that can be utilized to help members of the response team understand their roles and responsibilities during an emergency. The training can be given as a 60-minute training presentation. This training can be integrated with annual classroom training or it can be given as a stand-alone training session. The National Incident Management System served as the primary basis for this document and training presentation.

Target Audience: This training has been designed for incident command center personnel and mine rescue teams. However, it can be easily adapted to emergency response personnel involved with other types of emergencies.

Format: The training presentation was developed as a PowerPoint® file with Microsoft Office 2007 using a Microsoft® Windows Vista® operating system. The file formats for this presentation include Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Office 1997-2003.

To obtain a copy of the Incident Command Center training, please call the EMCIS Main Office at 303-384-2700, or email Mr. Alex Robles, at arobles@mines.edu.